In contrast to often heard claiming about an overall weakened civic engagement in older Western democracies, this study goes beyond the surface of manifested behaviour traditionally used as measurements of political participation. Instead, it looks for latent individual civic orientations. Focus groups interviews with particularly Swedish citizens that usually are represented as “passive” in aggregated statistics results in analyses of a far more composite and dynamic civic engagement rooted in motivations regarding obligation, importance, ability, demand, effectiveness and meaningfulness. Additionally the study reveals a civic engagement that is deeply embedded not only in political and social movements and organisations but also in welfare state institutions such as their relationships towards civil society organisations.